Transforming Entrepreneurship for Sustainability: Integrating Innovation, Strategy, and Social Impact

Dear Colleagues,

Entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised as a catalyst for addressing global sustainability challenges. This Special Issue, Transforming Entrepreneurship for Sustainability: Integrating Innovation, Strategy, and Social Impact, seeks to advance knowledge on how entrepreneurial ventures across diverse sectors, such as technology, fashion, food and creative industries, embed sustainability into their core strategies while remaining competitive. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary studies that bridge theory and practice and examine how digitalisation, ecosystem dynamics and impact measurement combine to enable scalable, sustainable new ventures (Islam & Can, 2024; Pérez-Barea, 2025; Gregori et al., 2025).

We invite conceptual and empirical contributions on innovative business models, circular and low-carbon practices, responsible scaling and digital transformation aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Foundational and contemporary research reveals how business model archetypes and circular principles can be operationalised, while also mapping the evolving intersection of entrepreneurship and circular economy and its implications for SMEs, startups and support ecosystems (Bocken, Short, Rana, & Evans, 2014; Suchek et al., 2022; Le, Behl, & Pereira, 2024).

Despite the field’s rapid maturation, recent systematic reviews identify persistent gaps: the need for integrative frameworks, cross-sector comparisons and mechanism-level evidence connecting sustainability orientation to venture performance and ecosystem outcomes (Abbas & Bulut, 2024; Gregori et al., 2025). This Special Issue aims to address these gaps and to surface actionable insights for entrepreneurs, policymakers and educators.

Taking this into account, we invite contributions that address questions such as:

• What strategies enable entrepreneurs to integrate sustainability into core business models while remaining market competitive? (Teece, 2007; Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011)
• How do digital technologies and e‑commerce platforms support sustainable scaling and global market entry? (Islam & Can, 2024; Pigola, Fischer, & de Moraes, 2024)
• What roles do ecosystems, policy frameworks and financing mechanisms play in enabling sustainable entrepreneurship? (Gregori et al., 2025; Abbas & Bulut, 2024)
• How can ventures measure and communicate social and environmental impact effectively, including shared value creation and SDG alignment? (Porter & Kramer, 2011; Pérez‑Barea, 2025)
• What lessons can be drawn from sector-specific case studies (e.g., fashion, technology, food) to inform broader sustainable entrepreneurship practices? (Niinimäki, 2020; Suchek et al., 2022)

We welcome single industry case studies, comparative cross-sector analyses, qualitative or quantitative empirical research and mixed method approaches that integrate qualitative and quantitative evidence.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 300–500 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (caroline.tan@rmit.edu.au; saniyat.islam@rmit.edu.au) or to the Administrative Sciences editorial office (admsci@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

References

Abbas, M. H., & Bulut, M. (2024). Navigating the landscape of sustainable entrepreneurship research: A systematic literature review. Discover Sustainability, 5, 171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-024-00293-4

Belz, F. M., & Binder, J. K. (2017). Sustainable entrepreneurship: A convergent process model. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1887

 Bocken, N. M. P., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review of sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, 42–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.11.039

Cohen, B., & Winn, M. I. (2007). Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1), 29–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2004.12.001

Dean, T. J., & McMullen, J. S. (2007). Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1), 50–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2005.09.003

Gregori, P., Schwarz, E., & Holzmann, P. (2025). Agencing entrepreneurial ecosystems for sustainability: A systematic review to rethink values, transformation, and boundaries. Small Business Economics, 65, 1755–1790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-025-01071-w

Hörisch, J., Johnson, M. P., & Schaltegger, S. (2020). Implementation of sustainability management and company size. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(3), 1–18. DOI: 10.1002/bse.1844

Islam, M. F., & Can, O. (2024). Integrating digital and sustainable entrepreneurship through business models: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 14, 20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40497-024-00386-4

Le, T. T., Behl, A., & Pereira, V. (2024). Establishing linkages between circular economy practices and sustainable performance: The moderating role of circular economy entrepreneurship. Management Decision, 62(8). https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-02-2022-0150

Muñoz, P., & Cohen, B. (2018). Sustainable entrepreneurship research: Taking stock and looking ahead. Business Strategy and the Environment, 27(3), 300–322.  https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2000

Nambisan, S., Wright, M., & Feldman, M. (2019). The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship. Research Policy, 48(8), 103773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2019.03.018

Niinimäki, K. (Ed.). (2020). Sustainable fashion in a circular economy. Aalto University.

Pérez‑Barea, J. J. (2025). The evolution of social entrepreneurship: Broadening the framework for the digital and sustainable era. Administrative Sciences, 15(2), 55. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci15020055

Pigola, A., Fischer, B., & de Moraes, G. H. S. M. (2024). Impacts of digital entrepreneurial ecosystems on sustainable development: Insights from Latin America. Sustainability, 16(18), 7928. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16187928

Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1–2), 62–77.

Shepherd, D. A., & Patzelt, H. (2011). The new field of sustainable entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(1), 137–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00426.x

Stubbs, W., & Cocklin, C. (2008). Conceptualizing a sustainability business model. Organization & Environment, 21(2), 103–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026608318042

Suchek, N., Ferreira, J., & Fernandes, P. O. (2022). A review of entrepreneurship and circular economy research: State of the art and future directions. Business Strategy and the Environment, 31(5), 2256–2283. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3020

Teece, D. J. (2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1319–1350. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.640

Dr. Caroline Tan
Dr. Saniyat Islam
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable entrepreneurship
• circular economy
• innovation strategy
• social impact
• digital commerce
• responsible scaling
• entrepreneurial ecosystems
• UN sustainable development goals
• technology-enabled sustainability
• cross-sector business models